Leica V-LUX 1 review

I am the lucky few who are the last to own this wonderful camera, and although I knew it would be a great machine, I couldn't have expected that much. 1) The zoom/focus rings are great, have nice feel and precision. Once I forgot the focus mode on AF and tried to twist the focus barrel, but no problem! AF doesn't rotate the ring itself and just disengages the manual focus ring-no problem of damaging gears(still, don't try this at home though)2) The auto-focus is in a smooth manner I haven't seen in the other cams I had(mostly Canon).3) The menus are a bit on the slow side, but I never looked up the manual, and the function button works awesome, just press it and then choose which functions to change with the arrow keys!4) Solid construction, yet very light for my hands.5) Image quality is phenomenal. Sure I DID get noisy pictures, then I adjusted NR, saturation, etc as well as exposure, and voila! Honestly, I don't understand how someone can expect to shoot better photos with ANY camera if they cannot adjust shutter, aperture and ISO. Trust me buddy, it IS the man, not the machine. Photos that turned up bad? No machine can save them, not M9, not Hasselblad, not Nikon 3X or Canon 1ds MIII. Once you learn how to use it, it's a gem.6) If you still don't have one, apart from the exception of starving your family, go get one now!

Problems:

1) I had some issues with the charger, but the retailer took care of it, and at that point I realized the importance of accepting regular batteries(like my Canon SX10).2) The swivel screen is fragile, use with care, and avoid using if you can to save battery life. Know the degrees of freedom(i.e. how it can and CANNOT move) and never force it. The small screen yields much better view, however it's more prone to tricking you into thinking you have a tack-sharp. Always review magnified.3) Pricey, truth be told.4) I can't help myself away from using it all the time.